A Non-federal Employee Talks About How the Shutdown Has Affected Her

Mike: So you’re a non-federal employee who works outside of Washington, but you’ve been affected by this shutdown. Can you explain your situation?

Vidya: My position is a little strange — I’m technically a university employee but I work at a federal lab. So my paycheck comes from the university but my lab space and office are off-campus. This means that when the federal lab shuts down I can’t access my lab space or office.

Mike: So the government shut down, and you couldn’t go to work?

Vidya: Exactly. If there was work I could do from home I would be welcome to do so, but right now I’m in the middle of a bunch of lab work which I really can’t bring home with me.

Mike: Does this mean you don’t get paid for the days you don’t work? Or is the University covering it?

Vidya: I’m extremely lucky to be salaried and have a bunch of PTO saved up so I’ll still be getting paid. There are a number of contractors who work in my building who don’t have benefits so they won’t get paid for the duration of the shutdown.

Mike: Do you have to use your PTO during this time?

Vidya: I’m actually going on vacation tomorrow so I was planning on using PTO anyway. I didn’t talk to my boss about it. We were very strongly encouraged to use our PTO. It’s not ideal, but it’s better than not getting paid.

Mike: How big is your lab? Meaning how many people are being affected where you work?

Vidya: There are roughly 80 people who work in the building. I’d say 50 federal employees, 20 university employees, and 10 contractors.

Mike: What was it like in the past few days? Was there a lot of discussion going on about the shutdown and what everyone would have to do if it occurred?

Vidya: It’s been very strange — there was almost no talk about a possible shutdown until Friday afternoon. It was almost like no one really thought it would happen until we had a meeting Friday afternoon and the director gave us a lot of very concrete information about what would happen if the government shut down. Yesterday I don’t think anyone got much work done. Everyone was scrambling and tying up loose ends. The lab was open for four hours today for people to sign their furlough notices and put away messages on their email and voice mail. And then there was an early happy hour, of course!

Mike: What are you and your colleagues doing in the meantime?

Vidya: I honestly don’t know. No one knows how long the shutdown will last so it’s tough to make any concrete plans. I know that I’ll go on vacation as planned and if I still can’t go to work when I get home I’ll go from there. If it lasts longer than two weeks I know I’ll get antsy and I’ll probably ask my boss if I can do some unplanned writing or editing. I know that some of my federal and contracted coworkers have been looking into whether they’ll qualify for unemployment should this drag out.

Mike: Do you have an email thread going or some other kind of thing you’re using to keep everyone updated? Maybe a joke email thread to keep things lighthearted?

Vidya: We can’t use our .gov email addresses so yes, we have an email thread going with alternative contacts for everyone that gets a bit jokey. We also have another happy hour scheduled. We’re big on the happy hours!

Mike: Maintaining that camaraderie seems to help!

Vidya: Especially since we’re not in D.C.! The shutdown doesn’t seem to be big news around here.

Mike: It really would be different if the government completely shut down and, for example, air traffic controllers weren’t allowed to go to work. It’d be forced to be the topic of conversation everywhere. In any case, is there anything else you’d like to add that people should know about?

Vidya: I just want to reiterate that I’m really lucky in the the shutdown isn’t going to be a problem for me but there are a lot of folks who aren’t so lucky. It affects a lot more than just federal employees. This is a great time for people to contact their elected officials to urge them to get this resolved sooner rather than later. And maybe if you have a friend who is furloughed, buy them a drink!

Mike: Solid advice.

Want to talk about how the shutdown has affected you? Email me.

Photo: Brian Mills

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